Toronto – When the Kings of Convenience (KOC) show was cancelled in February due to Eirik’s case of the flu I was quite devasted, KOC are probably one of my favorite bands. This devastation was temporarily remedied when I saw Whitest Boy Alive at Coachella (Erlend Oye’s side project), they were very impressive to say the least which left me anticipating KOC’s June arrival even more!
KOC came out a little after 10:15 PM, it was just Erlend and Eirik with their acoustic guitars. They kicked off the set with an ultra slow jam, My Ship isn’t Pretty, the packed house literally stood there in awe of Eirik’s amazing voice – it gave me Goosebumps!
After the first song Erlend addressed the crowd to say that they play many “quiet” songs and that we need to be quiet during those but we can get rowdy during their “not so quiet” songs. He also went on to say that The Phoenix denied their request to shut down the bar (Bastards) so he politely asked the audience not to buy drinks, a strange request at a concert but I could literally hear the change jangling, the register open/close, the person in the back sneezing and at one point a phone ringing (the nerve).
The duo then played a delightful set that included Love is no Big Truth, I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From, Mrs. Cold, Boat Behind, interrupted only with hilarious banter between Erlend, Eirik and the audience. They are quite the comedic twosome, at one point Erlend was late getting to the piano for his piece and Eirik commented that he would have to bring that episode up at the next band meeting. Flight of the Conchords anyone? Hearing this in their Nordic accents made these quips even funnier.
Being such a big fan of KOC I was worried my expectations for them were too high, well, their melodic, soothing songs coupled with amazingly precise and coordinated guitar work truly do all of their albums justice.
When they neared the end of their set KOC invited the opening band, Franklin for Short, on stage and proceeded to sing two songs with them (Rule my World and I’d Rather Dance With You). The backup band added another dimension to their final songs and gave the songs a little more punch. Erlend encouraged the crowd to move closer “like at a rock concert” he also showed off the best gangly-awkward-Napoleon Dynamite-esque dance moves I’ve ever seen (I got a sneak peak at Coachella but he was on FIRE during this show). Very entertaining.
For the encore they played Little Kids and then ASKED the crowd what we wanted to hear, that has NEVER happened at any of the concerts I have attended (I’ve been to a few..). Obviously we all yelled for them to play Misread which was the perfect wrap-up to an impeccable show, they said it best in their song Homesick “Two soft voices blended in perfection…”.